Michael  Kraten

Expertise: specializes in the analysis of business opportunities and risks with complex factors and highly uncertain outcomes.

Michael Kraten (PhD, CPA)  specializes in the analysis of business opportunities and risks with complex factors and highly uncertain outcomes.

His academic and practitioner qualifications are necessary because complex business challenges often require the implementation of advanced planning, modeling, and testing functions. Dr. Kraten selects and customizes the paradigms, frameworks, and processes that are developed in academic institutions, and applies them in practical settings.

Dr. Kraten is Professor Of Accounting at Houston Baptist University (HBU), where he designed and now teaches the graduate courses in entrepreneurial finance and advanced international accounting, and the undergraduate courses in advanced financial accounting and advanced auditing and internal control.

In addition, Dr. Kraten serves as the Chair of Accounting, Finance, and Economics programs at HBU, and the Director of Accreditation for all business programs. Furthermore, he is the Founder and Director of the Campus Learning Community on Sustainability.

Dr. Kraten began his career in the assurance, advisory, and management consulting practices of Deloitte, one of the “Big Four” global accounting firms. After serving as a Management Consulting Partner in the New York headquarters office of BDO, then the sixth largest global accounting firm, he co-founded the entrepreneurial boutique management consulting practice AQPQ. The acronym referred to the academic and practitioner qualifications of the firm.

Dr. Kraten practices in all industry sectors, and has developed functional specialties in valuation, enterprise risk management, business modeling, decision analysis, forensic analysis, educational “gaming,” and strategic planning. His long-standing relationships include organizations in the energy, technology, education, and health and human service sectors.

He maintains an evolving expertise in the field of sustainability. His innovative approach, as codified in its award-winning business case Save The Blue Frog, involves the integration of its assessment and implementation practices into the business activities of an institution, and an unrelenting focus on balancing financial and economic outcomes with social and environmental considerations.

Dr. Kraten previously served as an Associate Professor at Providence College in Rhode Island, where he designed and taught the graduate capstone course for public accounting students and the undergraduate interdisciplinary colloquium on sustainability. The colloquium was sponsored by the Western Civilization program; it integrated content from business and the natural sciences with content from theology, philosophy, history, and english.

He previously taught at Suffolk University in Boston, Maastricht University in the Netherlands, the University of Massachusetts, Sacred Heart University, and the University of Connecticut. He has also presented his work at Dartmouth College, Harvard Law School, Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, and other institutions.

Dr. Kraten has published in the Journal of Banking and Finance, the International Journal of Accounting, Research in Accounting Regulation, the CPA Journal, the Journal of Financial Planning, Accounting and the Public Interest, and other major outlets. His handbook Business Planning and Entrepreneurship: An Accounting Approach is published by Business Expert Press.

In addition, Dr. Kraten serves on committees and task forces of the American Accounting Association, and is an officer of the Public Interest Section of the Association. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the CPA Journal, the Senior Planning and Operations Committee of the Sustainability Investment Leadership Council, and the Advisory Board of the Center for Professional Accounting Practices at Fordham University in New York City.

Dr. Kraten has earned a PhD in Behavioral Accounting from the University of Connecticut and a MPPM in Public and Private Management from Yale University. Previously, he earned a BBA in Public Accounting from Baruch College of the City University of New York. He is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant.

Accountants strive to ensure that metrics are accurate and meaningful. Behavioral accountants, though, strive to present metrics in a manner that influences perceptions and reactions.
What I Learned:

If you wish to persuade someone to act in a responsible manner, it's tempting to simply explain to them why your objective recommendations are optimal and why their biased predilections are sub-optimal. That is a logical approach, but it is often unpersuasive. 

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Expert Information

Expertise

specializes in the analysis of business opportunities and risks with complex factors and highly uncertain outcomes.

Location

Houston

Experience

Current Experience

Professor Of Accounting at Houston Baptist University, Chair of Accounting, Finance, and Economics programs at HBU, and the Director of Accreditation for all business programs. Founder and Director of the Campus Learning Community of sustainability

Past Experience

  • Co-founder of the entrepreneurial boutique management consulting practice AQPQ
  • Management Consulting Partner in the New York headquarters office of BDO

Education

  • PhD in Behavioral Accounting from the University of Connecticut and a MPPM in Public and Private Management from Yale University.
  • BBA in Public Accounting from Baruch College of the City University of New York